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While bare-necking your way through life may seem boring or even terrifying, far more people these days are enjoying the perks of being mostly sober, or sober curious if you will.

To begin on the road to health and wellness, many people all over the world set up a monthlong sobriety challenge for themselves at the start of each new year, partaking in what is now colloquially known as Dry January.

An estimated 6.5 million folks made the personal resolution to lay off the booze for a month in January 2021, when the trend kicked off. If you want to give it a go, browse the best non-alcoholic drinks to buy, so you never feel like you’re missing out.

But first, what exactly are the health benefits of this dry month, if there are any at all?

Dr Gautam Mehta, Senior Lecturer at the UCL Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, co-authored a paper on the benefits of periods of abstinence such as Dry January, and reckons giving up alcohol for a month may aid weight loss and lower blood pressure, per BBC Good Food:

“Our work has shown that a month off alcohol, in healthy individuals drinking at moderate to high levels, does lead to tangible health benefits by the end of the month. Our study saw a weight loss of around 2kg, a decrease in blood pressure of around 5%, and improvement in diabetes risk of almost 30%. We also noted large decreases in blood growth factors that are linked to certain cancers. However, we don’t know how long these benefits last, or whether they translate to long-term improvements in health.”

In terms of longer-term changes in drinking behaviours after a dry spell, Dr Mehta’s research found that at “six to eight months after Dry January, the proportion of participants drinking at harmful levels decreased by about 50%”, concluding that “It may be that participating in Dry January allows individuals to ‘reset’ their relationship with alcohol.”

On that, Marcus Munafò, Professor of Biological Psychology at the University of Bristol, highlights that longer-term drinking patterns are important, too:

“It’s worth bearing in mind that to have a real benefit on health, people should be drinking within recommended low risk guidelines across the whole year. Dry January might be a helpful way to re-establish control over your drinking, and could have some short-term benefits (a lot of people report sleeping better, for example), but it’s unlikely to have major long-term health benefits in itself.

Munafò said that while we don’t really know whether short-term abstinence affects longer-term drinking patterns, it is still possible:

“If people can use Dry January as a way of feeling more confident about managing their drinking generally, then that could translate to lower consumption overall across the whole year. However, it could also have unintended consequences – people might feel that they’ve ‘detoxed’ after a month of no drinking, and drink more than they otherwise would have done in subsequent months.”

Ian Hamilton, lecturer in Addiction at the University of York, says that Dry January may help drinkers to analyse their habits and see where they could change them, but points out that it’s a difficult area to research.

“Overall, Dry January is a good initiative as it prompts people to think about not just how much they drink but what their individual relationship with alcohol is. For example, if you often drink to relax, it might get people to think about alternative ways to relax rather than relying on alcohol.

More research is indeed needed before we can say this is the best approach, but for now, Dry January seems promising enough.

If trying Dry January can help incentivise you to stay committed as a healthy and wholesome teetotalist in some shape or form throughout the whole year, then it is probably necessary to find a new favourite non-alcoholic drink.

While Fitch & Leedes is adept at making alcoholic drinks shine with their superb range of authentic mixers, they are also considerate enough to provide excellent booze-free options.

 

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In the classic range, they have the timeless zingy taste of lime and soda with Fitch & Leedes Classics Lime Twist, a delightfully modern twist on the familiar tropical favourite in the Fitch & Leedes Classics Passionade, the authentic taste of home-brewed ginger beer with Fitch & Leedes Classics Ginger Beer, and the taste of the ‘luck of the Irish’ with Fitch & Leedes Classics Rock Shandy.

If you need a little more pizazz without the hangover, might we suggest the Energy Mixer? It is fuelled by the Guarana berry and combined with reduced sugar, perfect for energising and elevating your sober experience.

 

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There are a lot more sober options to choose from where this all came from, so head over here to shop. The extra lekker thing is that you can order Fitch & Leedes on Takealot and have everything delivered right to your door.

[source:bbcgoodfood]